


Music Over the Hills

by SaintImperator



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Changeling AU, Fantasy AU, War AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-25 21:43:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12541844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintImperator/pseuds/SaintImperator
Summary: This is my piece for the Haikyuu Fantasy Exchange! I had the pleasure of making a gift for  bekasyura who asked for a fun variety of things. I was very pleased to have the chance to write something starring Asahi and Nishinoya and I hope you'll enjoy it!





	Music Over the Hills

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bekasyura](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=bekasyura).



               Asahi Azumnae had been a participant in the war against the Fae for as long as he could remember. Growing up his parents had fretted over his commitment to the war, owing to the fact that he’d been a gentle child. He’d love to frolic in the modest garden they kept, and brush the soft coats of his family’s pony. They were just simple people. The farm was all they had, and they strove to keep it even as the war raged. Time had built Asahi into a strong young man, the type recruiters couldn’t ignore. He was broad of shoulder, sharp of mind and true of heart.

               No one was surprised when they took him off to be a squire. He was promised riches and glory, and the chance to keep the Fae from overrunning the villages and towns he’d grown up in. That was the only thing that truly interested him, a chance to keep what he held dear safe from harm. Asahi kept that wish to himself, and let his chest swell with false pride. He put on a front of infatuation with climbing the societal ladder and being known for his heroic deeds. His parents likewise donned masks, while they hid their inward grieving.

               Knighthood suited Asahi, and though he was lowborn it did nothing to impede him. He won his victories with strength and quick action, growing close to his noble companions. Daichi, their fearless captain and his trusted advisor and right hand, Sugawara found themselves deeply fond of the humble Azumane. They kept him close and gave him command of a batallion. He always brought his men home alive, win loose or draw. Daichi’s sword, Crowsheart was feared by the fae for it never missed. Sugawara’s arrows flew nearly as true though he was only half as famous.

               When Asahi had first met them he was struck dumb with terror, but now he sparred with them to blow off steam. As much action as there was to be had in an army, there was plenty of down time too. Seiges were a painful business, and everyone was quick to grow restless. Daichi’s squadron was lucky to have Azumane, for he would soon settle against the trunk of a tree and hollow a branch. Before long he’d have made serviceable flute and the whole of their party would be calmed by his gentle music.

               “How can one so large make music so fine?” Sugawara asked him one afternoon.

               The sun was setting over the distant hills, painting the grass gold. Even with the flies buzzing, the serene air had filled the camp with pleasant comforts.

               Asahi only laughed in response and blew the first few high notes of Sugawara’s favorite song. The advisor’s silver hair quickly turned as gold as the grass and he wove his fingers through the stoic Daichi, pulling his commanding officer into the center of the field to dance. Laughter provided singing where words failed, and the rest of the soldiers soon joined in their captain’s revels.

               They never expected an attack to come.

               It was the nymphs who had spotted them, for Ashai unwittingly pulled his branch from the wrong tree. The tree-spirits usually teamed with malice when they were violated and struck out against their assailants, but this one had laid in wait and passed word through her root system. The ambush came as sudden and soundless as the wind. They poured into the valley, their willow bark armor the perfect camouflage with the surrounding woods. Those who were not wounded by their arrows were quickly slain by their swords.

               Asahi had never known such bloodshed. His glaive lay only a few feet from him, yet when he rose to reach it the young knight found that the tree he’d leaned against had wrapped him in its roots. He heard the cries of his fellow men as they fell, caught a glimpse of Daichi and Sugawara standing back to back against a horde of angry elvish warriors.

               “Captain-“ Asahi cried

               His strangled shout marked his only participation in the battle, as the very next moment a blow from a druid’s wooden club knocked Azumane out cold.

\--

               He woke up flat on his back, and the light that fell across his bare chest was a delicate green and not gold. It was an entirely different day. Asahi tried to sit up, but felt a burning pain spread across him the moment he moved. He lay back and let the world come to focus in a series of weary blinks. There was a canopy of leaves above him. The table he lay on felt wooden.

               Asahi could turn his head slightly to the right and left without the feeling of pain. The view did not provide much in the way of enlightenment. His pack was set on the table to his left, which appeared to be identical to the one he was on. Asahi could not see his glaive, which caused him a good deal of concern although he doubted he’d be able to put it to much use when he couldn’t even sit up.

               Presently Azumane heard footsteps. They were light, doing nothing more then gently pushing aside the leaves they glided alongside. Asahi knew this gait well. Fae.

               The face that appeared above him was just as he expected it, sharp and pointed as only magical creatures seemed to be. Glowing gold eyes looked down at his bandages from a frame of obsidian hair with a shock of blonde at the center. Gold against black. Both to bright to be human.

               “Get away from me!” Asahi growled.

               The boy above him startled, but did not withdraw. He was shaken but for a moment, wide eyes fast going narrow while he glared at the injured warrior. Asahi mistook this for a prejudice against his kind, when in reality the changeling child had just come from another troublesome patient and was in no mood to be snarled at again.

               “Now don’t start with that.” He growled, “I just had a patient try and gut me with her earring, so put aside your prejudice and lie still.”

Initially Asahi was stunned and the shock paralyzed him. The Fae boy began to unwrap the dressings of a head wound. The knight observed him closely, looking for any signs of malicious intent while all the while the word patient kept bouncing around in his head. That was how doctors spoke of people.  At last he began to stir, brow furrowing to confusion as he tried to puzzle it out. If this changeling child was a healer then why was he attending an enemy’s wounds?

“Patient?” Asahi asked.

“Yes.” The boy said firmly, giving the bandages a tug. Asahi winced. It felt like there was a snake tightening its coils around his head, and he was ready to lay into the healer. Yet then the boy offered his hand, “Yuu Nishinoya. I’ll be your doctor today.”

“A-a-Asahi Azumane.” He stuttered. It came out more like a question then a sentence.

Asahi found he really had to work to take Nishinoya’s hand and shake it. His muscles weren’t moving the way he wanted them too. Nishinoya made up the distance, thrusting his hand forward and enthusiastically pulling it up and down, fingers locked around Asahi’s sweating palms. He was surprised how small the healer’s hand was. He could’ve fit two of them in his own easily.

“Pleased to meet you.” Nishinoya proclaimed.

“Why?” Asahi asked.

“Mm?”

“Why..why are you pleased? Why am I here? Where is here?”

That was barely scratching the surface of all the questions Asahi had. With each passing second a dozen more pushed their way to the top. His thoughts were like boiling water, an infinite stream of new bubbling questions.

“People are supposed to say they’re pleased to meet you, even if its not true. You’re here because you got whacked in the head with a club and because the roots that grew around you were poisoned. Here is…secret but safe.”

As Nishinoya provided his answers he counted the questions off one at a time on his fingers. Asahi did his best to keep up with him. He’d never known anyone to talk so fast. Whenever he wasn’t speaking, the fae boy moved with uncomfortable quickness. He flitted over Azumane’s dressings like a hummingbird, checking up on each bandange and occasionally applying a new poultice. Asahi wanted to ask what was in them but that question never rose to the surface for long enough.

Worries of danger quickly began to fade and Asahi found himself at ease as the changeling began to tell him of the place he was staying.

“Not everyone wants to be in the war, you know.” Nishinoya said, “Some humans hate us. Some don’t. I think it’s the same of fae. The problems are between those with power, not commonfolk like us. They wanted me to fight with them but I ran away. Everyone here did.”

“Everyone?” Asahi asked.

Nishinoya nodded, then helped him to sit up. Asahi got a good look around, and saw that there were all kinds here. A freckle-faced fairy was holding a tray of surgical instruments for a bespectacled blonde human. The human was scowling, but more so at the incision he’d made then his assistant. The scattered patients were of every kind Asahi had ever known, and many more that he didn’t.

“Everyone.” Nishinoya said.

It was getting to be too much for Asahi’s mind to manage. It cramped up just as his stomach began too. Nishinoya’s eyes went wide and he laid the wounded warrior back down before calling over some of the others. It was all blurs to Asahi, everything except the little shock of blonde, bobbing above him. That seemed to calm him as he fell back into weary half-sleep.

He stirred at dusk, when a familiar tune found its way too his ears. He stirred to see the changeling boy sitting on the table beside him, holding palms upward and singing. His voice was sweet and almost magnetic. Asahi was drawn to him. Before he’d even known what he was doing, his hands strained across empty space to pull his pack to him. Azumane grabbed his flute. The first few notes were too sharp, his position not quite right as he had to remain lying, but by and by it came to him.

It wasn’t long before the two of them were in harmony. Here in this strange place of peace and healing Asahi felt as he always had in his childhood. He was reminded of his desire to return to that life, to never worry of bloodshed and unpleasantness again.

He thought that perhaps there were Fae that dreamed the same, and thinking of that pulled dreams of a swift end to unjustified conflict in all the stronger. He played until he’d run out of breath, and did not resist Nishinoya’s ministrations afterwards.

“Thank you.” Asahi said.

Nishinoya grinned, happy to be someone others could depend on. Supporting the wounded from afar, diving in to where he was most needed- these were the wars he was good at fighting. The two learned of their similarities while Asahi remained at the sick bay. Every night Asahi played, and Noya sung. It was with no hint of regret that Azumane realized he was healing and would soon have to away to his companions.

“Keep your head down, alright?” Asahi said, adjusting his pack over his shoulder.

Nishinoya cocked his head to the side, confused.

“I’ll make sure no arrows hit you…just keep your head down, alright?” Asahi said.

The changeling grinned and gave him a firm nod. Asahi returned it, and promised that when the war was said and done he would settle near the woods. He hoped that Nishinoya might come find him, so they might make music again. The changeling promised he would.

Asahi smiled to himself as he headed out towards the town his squadron was laying siege too. The battle had never seen so hopeful before, and his music never more mischievous. He was now certain he would live to see the day where there was peace again. Nishinoya felt the same.

**Author's Note:**

> As always thank you for reading and please let me know what you think!


End file.
